Trying to live in the present with A’s — oh, and Tigers

When it’s time to set postseason rotations, managers Bob Melvin of the A’s and Brad Ausmus of the Tigers could draw names from Jon Lester’s and David Price’s new caps.

That’s what we’ve come to now that the trade deadline passed and the A’s and Tigers, consciously or not, took turns one-upping each other on the rotation-reloading front. On both sides, there’s no usual drop-off from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4.

A’s general manager Billy Beane was asked about it on a Thursday conference call.

“Wait,” he said. “We did Samardzija-(Jason) Hammel and then Lester. So it’s 2-1 us.”

For the record: He was joking.

For the rest of the baseball world: Bring it on.

And this time, let’s skip the Division Series for the American League Championship Series, a best-of-seven pitching matchup for the ages. It would be priceless. For the A’s sake, hopefully not Priceless.

The last thing managers and GMs with designs on making the playoffs want to hear are playoff questions. Especially at the end of July. But it’s too tough to omit October or an A’s-Tigers rematch from this equation. Blame it on Beane and Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski for constructing rotations that even the Dodgers approve of.

Following the Independence Day trade for Samarzzija and Hammel, Beane said it’s not about October but about winning the division, especially with the Angels so close to first place. He was absolutely right.

Thursday, Beane said more of the same, calling the Angels “a really, really good baseball team that’s not going to slow down” and emphasizing anything transpiring in another division is not his concern. So it’s not about the Tigers. At least for now.

“It’s really easy not to look ahead to October,” Beane said. “There are a lot of games left. I say that with absolute honesty. There’s no looking ahead.”

Verlander might hold another opinion. Remember his comment after Beane initially beefed up his rotation on the Fourth of July: “I thought that they made that trade for us. No doubt about it in my mind,” said Verlander, whose Game 5 mastery knocked out the A’s each of the past two seasons.

Beane took his rotation to another level with Thursday morning’s Lester trade, and Dombrowski landed Price from the Rays in a three-way deal involving the Mariners shortly before the 1 p.m. PDT deadline.

Both GMs said none of it was related. In fact, Beane said he wasn’t surprised about the Price trade because he had heard about it Wednesday night. The Lester deal was finalized Wednesday night, too, according to Beane, who said Dombrowski kidded him moments before the deadline with a text that he had one minute to trade for Chris Sale.

“When I saw they got Lester,” Dombrowski told reporters, “I wasn’t jumping up and down, thrilled they got him, by any means. He’s a good pitcher. But it didn’t make a difference in this deal.”

But that won’t stop fans and media, both connoisseurs of being premature, from getting giddy and setting fantasy rotations. So Lester goes the opener (check his playoff pedigree). Then Gray (who doesn’t love Gray?). Then Kazmir (break up the lefties). Then Samardzija (now that’s deep).

Or just flip a coin.

On the Tigers’ side, which lists three Cy Young Award winners, Verlander is 9-9 with a 4.79 ERA. If the A’s see him in the playoffs, you think they’d give a damn if his regular-stats aren’t Verlandish? You know the answer.

Yoenis Cespedes, who hit .350 with six RBIs in the two playoff series against the Tigers, won’t have another crack at them. He’s a five-tool gift. Nobody hits a ball harder. Nobody throws a ball harder. He was a nice complement to all the lefties in the lineup.

But he was sacrificed for Lester and Jonny Gomes because Beane is looking at the present like never before, and that’s not unnoticed in the clubhouse.

“It goes to show you no matter how well the team’s playing or how well we’ve come together as a group, our front office is continuously looking to find ways to improve the team,” Sean Doolittle said. “It’s exciting they work as much as they do to get us the pieces to get the job done come postseason time.”

Nick Punto, who played with Lester in Boston, said, “We all love this team. Not only do we love the team in the clubhouse, but obviously our executives love this team, too. That they’re confident in us gives us confidence.”